Deregulation, flexibilization and privatization: historical and critical perspective of the brazilian electric sector

Abstract This article presents the trajectory of the electricity sector in Brazil under a historical-critical perspective. It also seeks to understand the origin of the crisis of this type of State, its substitution by the regulatory-controlling State, and how neoliberal ideas have managed to gain space in the guiding thought of the Brazilian economy. Lastly, the transformations of the electricity sector motivated by the crisis of the market model — identified by the rationing of electricity in 2001/2002 — are observed, which gave rise to the Brazilian hybrid model, structured between 2003 and 2016, as well as the resumption of liberal thought in 2017/2018. As a methodological pathway, a theoretical study was developed from a historical-critical perspective.